Paul
Introduction
It was their last visit to my house and they had left me some of their publications to "explain" some things to me. Yes, some Jehovah's Witnesses has spent a number of weeks trying to do bible studies with me, attempting to convince me of the claim that Jesus was the Messiah. Although I did like their friendliness, the substance of what they taught was distasteful when compared to the plain word of scripture. And although I had been frustrated before at their inability to debate using scripture, I hadn't seen nothing yet with regards to what could frustrate and annoy the living daylights out of me.
Having pointing out that Ezekiel 37 and Isaiah 11, when read according to their plain meaning, didn't match their view of Messiah, the Jehovah Witness (JW) that was most friendly left me some booklets and pages to describe their understanding of these passages. What I saw turned frustration into rage. I normally read through what they have to give me to see where they were coming from, with a pen to note down my thoughts in their book or on their print-outs. And turning page after page, I was compelled to write down one word to describe what the substance of their belief was: THEFT! They had stolen the name of Israel and the blessings entitled to that nation, and claimed their fulness for their own, leaving real national Israel with the empty husks of a purely limited and physical gift that never fully fulfilled the words of the Scripture! I was mad! Now is not the time to get fully into what they taught, but what they did teach only left a stink up my nose, a fury in my heart that wouldn't go away.
But I had met this before in different forms. Whether it was in the lesson books in the sabbath "keeping" church I used to be a part of, or in the lectures and sermons of mainstream christian teachers in universities or churches I would visit with uni friends there, or in a one-to-one discussion with a JW, this "replacement theology" teaching was stained all over the christian church, and it was all the more plain to me after I had rejected the christian faith. And this doctrine wasn't the only one to contradict the words of the Jewish Bible. There were others like the incessant need to link the role of the Messiah with Jesus' death; or the continual claim that "the dispensation of the Mosaic law" is over and we're in a dispensation (time-span) of grace where we don't have to worry about the condemnation that the law is supposed to bring; doctrines such as these that would ease themselves from the mouths of a multitude of christians. But these doctrines would have no basis in the Jewish Bible, only in the mindset of the christian who would impose such beliefs on the Hebrew Scriptures.
My first instinct was to go after the JWs and their teachings and using the plain words of scripture to rip them to shreds! But then I stopped and realised something. This teaching existed in most or all forms of christianity, not just the JWs. In essence, by going after them, I would be trying to whip the disciples who had learned their doctrine from someone else, and it was this someone else who would then simply go on to teach his doctrine to some other vulnerable and impressionable person who would then continue to spread his poison. What is the point in going after the pupil when the teacher is left free to promulgate his views? What is the point of attacking the branches of a weed infestation when it would be much more effective to go after the roots?
So who or what is the source of the venomous teachings of these people?
Here I introduce the unrepentant culprit: Paul of Tarsus, writer of almost half the books of the christian scripture, the "new testament", and whose influence can be seen in other books in those same writings! If the new testament consisted only of the writings of the disciples of the "flesh and blood" Jesus, many of the current doctrines of modern christianity wouldn't have even existed. But Paul and the epistles (letters) ascribed to him does so much to spread his brand of doctrine, doctrines that would forever alienate christianity from Biblical Judaism. He is the primary teacher of mainstream christianity, in which I include the JWs, and their main source for their anti-Israel, anti-law doctrines (some christians like to say that they are not anti-Israel or anti-law, but actions speak louder than words).
In this series of articles, I will be going through the epistles in the christian scriptures that are commonly said to be written by Paul, paying careful attention to how he uses, misuses, and abuses the words of scripture. I also will look at those parts of his writings that confront and conflict with the plain understanding of the Jewish Bible, and I will critique them as best I can. I find out things that surprise me and teach me a bit more about the sort of person this man is and about what the true intent of the Jewish Bible is. Here I look the main teacher of christianity in the eye, and confront him to his face (figuratively speaking - he's dead now) and question him and his doctrines. I do not pretend to perfectly destroy his efforts, or to totally refute his teachings. But, at the very least, I have tested his letters against the Hebrew Bible, the so-called "old testament" and have written my results.
As usual, I pray that my opinion will at least challenge you, the reader, no matter what point of view you have. I hope I challenge you in the way that you strive to draw closer to the Almighty and to his truth, because that is the greatest thing in this whole universe.
Let's proceed.
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